This summer, Southbank Centre plays host to a wealth of family-friendly activities, including live music, thrilling family shows, workshops, circus, open-air film screenings and plenty of outdoor fun. Families can play in the sand at the riverside Urban Beach, dodge the jets of Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms fountain or take in the views from Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden before seeing one of the season’s top family shows. From the creators of critically-acclaimed Aliens Love Underpants, Monstersaurus is an energetic show full of thrills, spills, magic and mayhem. Adapted from …

From Saturday 26 May to Sunday 3 June, the 29th Edinburgh International Children’s Festival brings some of the world’s best theatre, dance, multi-media and puppetry specifically made for young people to Edinburgh for nine days of inspiring and entertaining shows and special events.
“2018 promises to be another spectacular year for the Children’s Festival,” said Edinburgh International Children’s Festival’s festival director Noel Jordan. “We are delighted to present some of the very best companies making work for young people from around the world as well as some of the best artists living in Scotland and …

Southbank Centre’s annual multi-arts Imagine Children’s Festival returns for its seventeenth year from 7 – 18 February 2018, with twelve days of jam-packed fun over half-term week for children and their families. With storytelling at its heart, this year’s programme includes a specially curated Royal Festival Hall event celebrating the world’s leaders and pioneers who have changed the world, to inspire the next generation of young changemakers.
The twelve day festival includes inspiring and playful events and activities from Super Hero parties, magical immersive adventures and snail friendships to dancing scientists …

Wintertime at Southbank Centre is announced today with a feast of offerings capturing the magic of winter from 10 November 2017 to 4 January 2018. The final season of Southbank Centre’s year-long exploration into Nordic arts and culture, Nordic Matters, Wintertime sees a one of a kind Finnish Rooftop Sauna in the picturesque roof garden of the Queen Elizabeth Hall overlooking London’s iconic River Thames (10 Nov – 30 Dec). Danish children’s theatre company Teater Refleksion and theatre artist Andy Manley invite families and young children on a magical, poetic journey through the dark and beautiful …

WHY DON’T YOU… Hold a family sports day
In a recent poll, sport was one of the top three activities children told us they wanted to do with their parents, so why not turn an area of your garden or your local park into your very own sporting arena? Hold a running race, beanbag throw, mini hurdles or go retro with a game of rounders.
WHY DON’T YOU… Go on a nature treasure hunt
Make a map with a list of ‘treasure’ on it that the family has to tick off and find …

Following a successful run in Madrid, The Art of the Brick DC Superheroes makes its London debut this week. The contemporary art exhibition will be shown in an exclusively built space on London’s South Bank, home to the capital’s cultural quarter. Together with Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment, the well-known and celebrated artist Sawaya has created the world’s largest collection of artwork inspired by DC’s Justice League, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, alongside DC Super-Villains the Joker, Harley Quinn and more.
Through a series of immersive galleries,The Art of the Brick …

The UK’s original pleasure park, Dreamland Margate, will be welcoming GEEK in 2017. A three-day festival of play and gaming, GEEK will entertain the whole family during the Half Term from the 17th to 19th of February.
For five years GEEK has been bringing people together to meet, make, and play. The event focuses on multiplayer interactive games and encourages visitors to participate in all genres of gaming; including board games, computer games, retro and next generation, card games and real world games.
GEEK will be situated throughout the Dreamland site, including …

Travelling with your children is a wonderful experience: it is a great time to bond as a family, and it is also a fantastic way to help your children learn. Our children got their first passports when they were only a few weeks old, and since then we have travelled extensively with them, and spent time living overseas. My new book Road School tells the story of what happened when we took our children out of school to learn ‘on the road’ for six months, and what we learned about …

Are you thinking about visiting Adventures in Moominland this Christmas holiday? We’ve just been to the interactive exhibition that lets you explore the magical world of acclaimed Finnish author Tove Jansson (1914‐2001) and her famous creation Family Moomintroll. It’s a great exhibition which we all enjoyed. Tickets are going fast, so read more about it and then do book ahead if you want to see it.
When you think of the Moomins are they friendly or scary? We were surprised to find out the Moomintroll first came to life as a …

  What have you got planned to entertain the kids this Christmas Holiday? Just in time for the break, the Southbank centre is launching an immersive, interactive exhibition which explores the internationally-recognised stories of the Moomin family through the life of its author Tove Jansson . Hot on the heels of the successful Roald Dahl experience which we loved, this is the first major UK exhibition on The Moomins . There are more than 40 items of archive material on display including original drawings, paintings and personal items, many to be shown in the …